Hey Dad paedophile victim harassed online, court hears

Luke James Wallis, 34, repeatedly harassed a victim of Hey Dad! actor Robert Hughes online using "vile" comments on Facebook.

A GOLDEN Square man created fake Facebook accounts under the names of alleged celebrity paedophiles to harass a victim of convicted paedophile Robert Hughes online, a court has heard.

Luke James Wallis, 34, pleaded guilty in the Bendigo County Court on Wednesday to one count of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend, and one count of transmitting child pornographic material.

Robert Hughes was convicted of child molestation offences committed while he played a starring role in the sitcom Hey Dad!

In one comment, Wallis wrote he was “really proud of Robert (Hughes) for… not lowering himself to admit his offences and… not shedding crocodile tears”.

In another, he said “every time I have a drink or spit in a female’s cup, I do it for Robert”.

Wallis also wrote” “I had a dream about you last night. Me, you and Robert were playing Twister… you winked at me”. He then made an offensive comment regarding Daniel Morcombe.

He wrote that “Rolf Harris brought happiness to millions”, “not all females are sex objects, just the attractive ones”, “I wouldn’t care if someone treated my mummy like that”, and “why is everyone so against pedophiles?”.

Wallis was charged with transmitting child pornographic material in relation to an explicit comment made under his Mr Swirl account. The comment was classified as Category 5 child pornographic material.

The anti child exploitation team raided Wallis’ Golden Square home on August 11 and seized his electronic devices.

The victim submitted a victim impact statement to the court.

The court heard Wallis was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1998.

Defence counsel Raphael de Vietri said Wallis acknowledged the material was “vile and disturbing”.

Mr de Vietri said Wallis had “reflected on the offending”, and believed it was a result of his yearning for “emotional engagement”.

He said the offending was not the result of a need for sexual gratification.

“Whilst there was a strong sexual theme or nature to the offending, it was not for sexual gratification. Rather, it was an instance of trolling,” Mr de Vietri said.

The defence is seeking a community corrections order with one-on-one psychiatric counselling.